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Louis-Michel Le Tellier
Louis-Michel Le Tellier (19 April, 1712-17 January, 1758) was the Marquis de Louvois after the death of his father in 1737. His father's eldest son, Louis is known for being immensely popular among the provincial nobles, and many were indebted to him by the time he joined Court shortly preceding his father's death. Early Life and Family Louis-Michel was born at the Chateau de Clermonceau, the chief Spring retreat for the House Le Tellier. His mother, Louise Madeline, daughter of a powerful Provincial family, was very pleased to have a son. His father, François-Michel, was so joyed to have a son, he bestowed the family namesake, Michel. While Louis was always considered a person untouchable by tragedy, the boy would lose his mother very young, as she died in childbirth of Louis's younger brother, Henri Dieudonne. The young duo of children were educated independently each in different chateaux. Louis was educated at Saint-Michel, as he was the heir to the House, while Henri was sent to Villandry to be tutored. The two were reunited later in life, by which they were well-educated in various fields. Louis was especially studious in language, diplomacy, and business, while Henri focused on more military pursuits. By the time he was 15, Louis had made quite a name for himself among the Provincial nobles as he was running his father's business affairs while the Marquis was at court, and had correspondence that had very far reaches across the countryside of nobles outside of court. The tall and rather lean man was forever an intimidating figure, though he had inherited the ever-famous Le Tellier attitudes of youthfulness and pleasures. Marriage and Work Outside of Court When Louis was destined to marry, his father the Marquis arranged that he marry from a Provincial Branch of the Saint-Simon household, namely Marie Josephine. This was mostly to repair from a long-standing feud between the Le Tellier family and the countless Provincial nobles around the local lands. The tall and lanky teenage Louis agreed to the marriage, and the families involved rejoiced at the private ceremony of the wedding at the chapel in Brienne in 1727, and the couple was seemingly very happy. In late 1728, the "peace pact" of a marriage was proven to be fruitful. Marie was pregnant, and it was frequently predicted that the child would be the healthiest of sons. The young Seigneur was determined, however, to love the child regardless. The child was born in June the following year, a boy he graciously named Charles Michel. The couple would then be graced with a pair of twin girls: Marie Elisabeth and Marie-Therese. Louis was most notably close to his children in their early years of life. He was known to ever-so tenderly care for them personally at Villandry, where he lived for quite a while when his father was at court. In 1732, Louis would have a third daughter. Named Marie-Anne, the newborn and her twin older sisters, were known as the Three Pearl Marie's, because of their almost milky white skin. The trio, along with Louis's son, Charles, were the pride and joy of the Le Tellier Family, as they shined a bright future for the next generations. This happiness, however, would soon be quelled by tragedy. As a bout of bad fever began to ravage a few Provincial families, Louis would witness how mortal and fragile youthful life is as his twin daughters, Marie Elisabeth and Marie-Therese, died within 4 days of each other in October of 1733. The depression that Louis would suffer was quite emptying. He was recorded to have written to his father on the matter: "My eyes are in disbelief. My very heart and core have been shaken as though it sustained itself at once upon a spindle, only to be cast about by the winds. The carriage hath rolled away, my own blood in boxes of bone and sorrow. How I weep, how I weep." Louis would soon take to such a change that he would never truly return to his older and warmer self. The already tall and lanky figure of a man, Louis began to eat very little. He went to Paris for quite a time, having reverted to an overly formal lifestyle. There he met and had a very brief affair with the Mademoiselle de Mortemart, Marie-Clémence Gabrielle. While he still had quite a bit of affections to her, Louis remembered soon after his duties to his family. The two would remain friends until Gabrielle's death in 1737, and Marie-Josephine never heard of the affair. Upon returning to his family, Louis had mostly recovered, and in December of 1734, the couple had yet another child, a son they instantly named Philippe Dieudonne. They named him such a name as a sign that the family was finally in recovery from mourning. That being said, it is believed that he had miniatures of all of his children's portraits, with his twin daughters framed in black jasper, on his person at all times. Louis would still frequently leave his family for business. He went all over the Empire obtaining a mass following among nobles who could not afford to attend court. His father commended him on this, as it was a means to eliminate any and all threats to the family that rest outside of court. Following the death of his brother, Henri, Louis was entrusted to care for the deceased's wife and children. When Henri's wife died in childbirth of Henri's third child, Louis became officially the legal guardian of 6 children, only 3 of which were his own. Coming to Court and Replacing his Father Only 2 days following the birth of his 6th child, his wife Marie-Josephine died suddenly from childbed fever on Louis's birthday in 1737. The heartbroken Louis only mentioned this event once in his life, in a letter to his father. A small sentence summed up their relationship: "How I miss my little queen; how I miss my Josephine." Louis quickly buried himself in his father's work. He went all over the Empire conducting further business and expanding the households funds through his ventures. He would write to his children frequently, but be forever immersed in his work. When his father married again, Louis wrote a very silent congratulations, but seldom spoke to his new stepmother, Hortense. As his father's health deteriorated, Louis slowly worked his way to court. This seemingly brought about a flock of Provincial movement to court. The Provincials still followed him around quite a bit, and he seemed to be somewhat of a voice to them on court happenings. This seemed to mend some of the long-standing distaste between the Le Telliers and countless other families around the Empire. The day before his father's death, Louis entered court. He unwittingly met his father who was the Grand Maitre de la Maison, having not recognized each other at all after years of not seeing one another. The following day, Louis would enter the salon only moments after his father died in that very room, a public debacle unfolding in front of him, and he would never see his father again. He was seemingly composed in this issue. Louis chose to mourn his father in private, conveying a more conventional sense of mourning in public. He followed his father's wishes and never marked his grave, though he would visit it when he had the time. The New Marquis brought essentially a younger face to an older office. His father would often interact with courtiers and would be often consumed with personal thought, and while Louis was very much acting in the same court position as his father, he would be more solemn and silent. He would not interact with gossip in public function, and rather remained silent unless he was especially peeved. He took up his father's office as Grand Maitre de la Maison, and was twice as efficient. While he would be very often more fresh in ideas than his father, the absolutist Louis would never attend the philosophical discussions at salons, nor would he speak on politics. His opinion was that it was not his place to be involved in governing, only involved in keeping order in Court to ensure happiness of the Empress and Court as a whole. While he was very different from his father, he was still frequently compared to his late predecessor. This can be attributed to the fact that the young man tended to wear a wig styled in the fashion of his father for some reason unknown. Others tried to speak to him as to why, but no one is quite certain. Personality and Appearance Throughout his life, Louis was known to be an abnormally lanky man. His father would frequently write of his worries, for his son was so skinny. His face as a child, by contrast, was somewhat plump. He was always known to have nice brown eyes. They were called his "visions of honesty and kindness" because of his generally cool demeanor. Those whoever witnessed him in action would notice a strange way he walked. He seemed to scrunch a tad forward, making him oddly intimidating considering his naturally subservient nature compared to his father. Standing, he would often lean on his cane, somewhat forever in a prostrating stance. His personality somewhat reflected upon his appearance. At court he was seen as a silent, but honest, gentleman. Truth came to him naturally, unlike his father, whom he was forever compared to and was forever. Provincials noted his overly complex motions in everything he ever did. In public he was always subservient, always cordial, and always trying to make people happy. When he would commit a minor infraction, especially at court, he would punish himself beyond any measures. His slim figure is attributed to this, as he would frequently fast and when not summoned for anything, he would often sit in his empty dining room at court and stare at the table. He lived a very private life that few knew about. He adored his children, and would always do anything to keep them happy. He himself privately held a very child-like nature, relating somewhat to his children more as a friend than a father, though he still believed that their education was the first order of business in order to ensure success for them. When it comes to his children, he would often keep their affairs quiet from court. He'd be rather short when it comes to others asking of his family. This wasn't out of annoyance, but rather, he believed in keeping his matters of household quiet. As he faced various tragedies around in his life, he would have small lapses of virtue. For whatever reason, he would often relapse to this mechanism of over-zealous parties and then suddenly act as though nothing ever happened. His public image was earnest and steadfast in the face of loss. Instead, like his father, he would suffer in private. He would often spend his nights staring at miniatures of his family. Early in the mornings, he would spend his time before the levee writing odd letters to his deceased loves and leave them, sealed, in his desk. They were not found for quite some time. Louis was a man of few words. and he would spend his time at court very diligently. At carousels, his first order of business was purchasing a clock. If it were his choice, Louis would've installed clocks in every inch of the palace, so that no one would be late. His work with the Empress Marie was very time consuming, but he was well-devoted. Louis, delivering Her Majesty's Papers and letters, would frequently attempt to lighten the mood by making jokes. In all, while Louis was often a stern and solemn man with many private thoughts, he was a man who would do anything to please all around him and keep order. Le Tellier Debt Scandal At the time of his father's death, Louis was a considerably wealthy noble. He was betrothed to a cousin by the end of June 1737, and was considered a very prestigious noble because of his birth and alleged wealth. All wealth has its limits, though, and Louis would soon come to learn this.truth. It is never counted how much he spent and how much he was in debt, but what is known is that he was one of the most-spending courtiers in the nation. On July 2nd, he was finally alerted of this by a secretary, who had been assisting him in his financial assessments. Word of this as well as the spending of others spread like wildfire. He was granted permission of leave from court for 1 day, which he spent doing as much as he could to eliminate what debts that he had. According to a transactions receipts list kept at court, the Marquis sold off many family heirlooms, as well as other things, in order to do this. Many lost respect for the Marquis, who up until that point had hardly a blemish at court. On top of this, the Marquis was having an affair with a Mademoiselle de Polignac. It is believed that he had mistaken her for a woman he had met at a masquerade, and had become infatuated with her. However, most of the court, if anyone, knew the extent of the relationship. This would lead to much strife in the beginning weeks of his second marriage. Mass Death at Le Tellier-et-Iscour While Louis was at court, the untitled side of the family remained at Le Tellier-et-Iscour. This side of the family, what was left of the descendants of a Henri-Philippe Le Tellier (a distant cousin of the Marquis de Louvois and the Duc de Choiseul), was very close, and their families tightly packed in the considerably small living quarters at the residence. By the 8th of July in 1737, all but one of the adults were dead. The first to die was Henri-Alois de Saint-Simon, son of Henri's eldest daugter, Marie-Victoire Jeanette, and Louis-Jacques de Saint-Simon, the latter of which died only days later. As more and more of the family died very suddenly over the month, it became ever more clear the suspect: 26 year old Jean-Jacques Le Tellier, 6th child of Henri-Philippe Le Tellier and a closeted radical protestant. He was allegedly going to become the protector of all the children, and was intending on forcing their conversion into Calvinism. While this could not be proven, secretive Louis had a way to prevent this plan from coming to fruition. The group of 14 children had already been staying at the residence of Henri-Philippe's mother, Louise-Marguerite de Rochechouart de Mortemart. The elderly woman wrote to Louis of the situation, and Louis in turn allowed her to keep the children in her residence for as long as she was able to. This saved the children's lives, but it did not save their parents, who were all dead by July 8th in the most sudden mass death in the family to date. Second Marriage On July 10th, 1737, Louis married the Mademoiselle de Penthievre, Emilie Christine. The ceremony, having taken place in Paris, was considered very appropriate for the happy couple. It went very well, and the reception at Chateau de Bizy was very pleasant despite interruption, as Le Tellier would later note. Because of his almost unbearable sense of duty, however, he suddenly and abruptly ended his affair with the Mademoiselle de Polignac. This of course did not end very well. The newly flamboyant Louvois was suddenly covered with a spring in his step, leaving his former mistress in the dust. This, however, did not prevent a protestant bible from striking his head after being thrown from a window. The bump was so large it left a permanent raise atop his head, which he had to cover wit his vast wig While his wife was secretly pregnant, Louis spent much of his time tending to court duties until the Mademoiselle decided to take it upon herself to try to get back his love with a "potion" of sorts. While the potion did make him rather immoral, almost no one knew quite what happened between the two. Louis would, however, suffer quite a horrible illness due to this potion's effect. It is not known if this was low-grade poison, or merely an allergic reaction, though the Marquis would do all that he could to avoid word getting out of the nature of his illness. Private Illness and Fashions Conflict As the Marquis slowly became more and more ill, he took little more solace than in his taste for clothes. His wife's pregnancy stressed him greatly, more for her own health than the health of their children, thus making his illness more painful. He decided to try to hide his ills behind sleek beauty. He made quite a splash, must to the dismay of the Monsieur. This began a rather short-lived conflict, and the only time Louis-Michel would ever bring himself to attempt to out-do a noble of higher rank. The conflict began with new suits on the Le Tellier side. Monsieur had already purchased a decent fill of new suits, but the Marquis was a stand-out that many enjoyed. Most notable were the new style of a decorated bow on the posterior of the jacket, reintroduced by the Marquis. These bows and decorations were frequently called "Rosette arrière" or "rear bow" as they would be the first thing of many to draw the attention of passersby. The Marquis was known to have done this specifically, merely because he was complimented on one on an occasion. This fashion alteration was noted as something that the court would witness as a light joke, as in reality the Marquis was rather silent figure. It was quite odd for such a quiet and reserved noble, who only speaks of work, to wear such flamboyant clothing. The Empress and Emperor Consort, as well as the Cardinal de Mortemart, thought it rather funny as they personally knew the Marquis as a silent but helpful friend, now he looked almost comical but very attractive in the fashion sense department. The fashion conflict was cut short for a flotilla of reasons. It became inconvenient for Louis, who was constantly busy with constant work around court, to bother with fashion. Atop this, the Marquis was not getting any better. It was believed that the 25 year old was suffering from early stages of nervous humors. He would suffer various pains in his hands, possibly from constant writing he would endure. Many various health issues also continued to arise, including night sweats and very violent coughs. For being so young, Louis seemed to have aged due to stresses he was poorly unable to withstand. Retirement from Court and births of Final Children As his situation only worsened, he was pushed even closer to the edge of madness when he received word that his cousin, Jean-Jacques, was again threatening the infants of his siblings and his own surviving siblings. Louis continued to stress, to the point his natural hair developed a striking white streak in his dark hair. Fortunately he was able to hide this stress with his wig, but he would still continue to suffer, and he still was adamant in trying to hide the suffering from his family. When visiting his Autumn residence, Le Tellier-et-Iscour, he suffered a very minor bout of lightheadedness, having fallen down the stairs in the old building. Though having only some rather nasty bruises, the Marquis was forced to request temporary leave from court, which was granted. This made Louis-Michel feel ever-so guilty. He failed to do his charges, a failure that his father did not suffer. Though only considerably minor, Louis considered it to be a severe insult to the institution itself that he had held so dearly to his own heart. Few knew how much he had wished to end his dishonors to the court by vanishing into obscurity. Shortly before the birth of his twin daughters the following year, Louis had continually felt as though he was a useless as stress and work and health finally reached an apex. Finally, having a very sudden lapse and loss of way, Louis resolved to resign his post. He met with Her Majesty before surrendering over his garbs of office and making an official announcement, the only time the Marquis would address the court out of ceremony. Witnesses to his announcement of retirement note that he said the following after being granted permissions to address the court itself and thudding his ever-reliable cane upon the floor: "T'is with heavy a heart and rainy and weary an eye that I, the Marquis de Louvois, wish to announce my official retirement. I have loved the company of you all, though I have found that my inability to fulfill the post and charge graciously placed upon my shoulder is an inexcusable act, and I wish not to become the detriment I fear most to have fallen upon the court before me. I hereby declare that I am no longer of use to you all, and I heartily and sorely apologize for my insolence. Let these your ears and eyes be blessed continually with the presence of Their Majesties, for I have never seen wiser and kinder a regnant upon Our throne. I bid all my stars all adieu, and will bother thee no further." He bowed a final time, before being granted permission to leave the court behind to quietly pack what things he had before another soul could even speak to him, a final oddity of the gentleman who had once always had an ear for others. The Marquis de Louvois was eventually recognized for his constant work ethic even when his health and safety was at risk. He was given a rank in the Order of Saint Benignus, second only to the Emperor Consort's rank, as he was considered to have worked himself to the bone for quite some time for not only the court but also for the Empire as a whole. His wife, Christine, was permitted to leave with him for the time being, and the couple carefully traveled to Clermonceau. In May of 1738, after having twin daughters, named Victoire Therese and Louise Seraphine, Louis vowed to care for and love his new children as much as he had loved his previous children as Christine left to return to court when she felt better and ready. Christine was granted permission to leave court once and a while to visit her husband, who wrote to her and various other nobles from time to time. In one of these visits, the Marquise became pregnant once again in late July of 1738. The couple were both overjoyed, even though by that point Louis was nearly buried in stress. The child was seen as another ray of hope for the family after the continual threat from a cousin, who wreaked havoc well into June of 1738, came to a final blow. Stress for Louis was a plague. His work at home continued to boil and boil until finally it reached a screeching hault in Late June of 1738. Jean-Jacques Le Tellier finally tried to kill the Marquis, who at the time was visiting his retreat in Villandry. The brawl between the two would go down in family history as a near bloodbath, but in the end, Louis-Michel, a battered mess, survived the attack. Jean-Jacques on the other hand, did not. To spite the traitor Le Tellier, Louis ordered his bones be completely crushed and placed in a box, to be buried in a Catholic ceremony. It is said that a slight limp and rickety walk, further forward, was prominent for the remainder of his life because of several shallow stabs and cuts due to the scuffle. Louis was given another joy in 1739,when the Marquis was pleased with a final son, the only child he had given 3 names: Jean-Michel Gaston. Louis continued to pride himself in personally caring for his children, having a second and final son with his second wife in 1741. That being said, his household slowly became almost like a zoo. While Louis himself had 8 living children of his own, his orphaned nieces and nephew also lived under his wing, thus having 10 children in total. Atop that, Louis frequently visited his cousin, the near ancient Louise Marguerite Le Tellier (nee Rochechouart de Mortemart), whom was caring for the orphaned siblings of Jean-Jacques Le Tellier. Continually wracked with a sense of duty, Louis ensured that she would recieve a pension of 6,000L annually until they would eventually be sent off to join the clergy. The orphaned children were all sent off to join the clergy by the end of 1740. Louis paid a total of 65,000 livres over 3 years 1738-1740 in order to ensure that they would enter the clergy, along with his daughter, Marie-Anne. Saving the House Saint-Simon and Continued Retirement from Court In 1742, the House Saint-Simon had gone into such severe debts that they had gone bankrupt. Being relatively close to the Household (even being related to a major branch of the family), the Marquis de Louvois decided to assist them by some means. He finally resolved to buy their former seat, the Chateau de Monfort-sur-le-Fleuve. He spent 92,000 livres to purchase the property. He nominated to leave the property largely plain, and spent many days there as it was good for his health when he wanted to be near enough to court to visit and to Paris to attend to his business. The House of Saint-Simon was conserved, and resolved to from then on to assist the Le Tellier Family with all means possible. This would prove valuable. Though Le Tellier's life was continued in his retirement at Montfort, the former Grand Maitre was still somewhat in touch with court happenings. He was known to give some decent monetary advice for the fiscally irresponsible in court. Louis also developed a large group of, as he would call it, spiders. They were mostly lower nobles, looking to be trained and prepared for life outside of Provincial Nobility. He would frequently arrange for them to work for him in Paris, as well as his private estates and even at court, and in exchange they would relay mostly harmless information, though he would on occasion acquire information that he would record, some of which being the most scandalous and ruinous information on countless nobles. With his cousin, Louise Marguerite (who also cousin of the Cardinal de Mortemart), dying in 1751 at the age of 90, Louis became increasingly depressed. He had trusted many of his female cousins and held them to high regard. Their deaths between 1751 and 1754 led to Louis's own contemplation of what it truly means to die. He took a very pious approach to such contemplation, and wrote a small book of prose involving his own conflicts and his interpretations of religious views on death. Return in 1757 By 1757, Louis had a festoon of health issues. He had developed moderate arthritis prematurely in both his hands and his knees, thus making it quite rickety to walk and write. His handwriting went shaky because of this, and he would often prefer to remain sedentary to avoid the embarrassment. The Marquis had also been made half-blind from the fight with his cousin at Villandry. His left eye had a white point in the pupil and it would slightly shake on its own accord. The Marquis also had very bad back problems. His slump forward continued to become more severe, and his limp from the Villandry brawl made him have more severe back problems. After having left court in 1737 with only very brief visits following, Louis had stepped away from the eating world he had grown accustomed to. He buried himself in work, even when ill, similarly to his father. Because of this, his food intake was notably on an exponential decline. Being gone from court for 20 years, only eating on average 1 simple meal daily in that time, Louis had lost a significant amount of weight. His height being around 6ft. 3 inches tall, he looked even thinner than his former stature. He weighed under 100 pounds by the time of his return, having lost more than 70 pounds. Louis tried to take good care of his health going unnoticed, but failed. When he returned to court to attend a gathering in the Louvre, his contemporaries compared him to a crooked yew tree. His pale skin and his shakiness was most noted. Louis was present for the death of Madame la Princess. Being her son-in-law, he was fairly shocked of her death. The Marquis had been sent by his wife, Madame la Princess's daughter, to deliver a letter, however he was too late by the time of his arrival. He was said to have left the letter, completely sealed, on her bed immediately after her death. Louis would return to court a few weeks after this event, being somewhat an unwelcome guest. He missed the death of Her Majesty, but wrote in great sorrowful detail of such effect. In mourning he donned his bland suit, briefly ceased correspondence, and continued his works solemnly. He remained silent at court for his short return, though he had various quarrels with the younger generations of court. He was seen as an old and dull man, a representative of a traditionalist group withing a slowly fleeting generation. Not much unlike his predecessor. Louvois had, by the time of his return to court, formed a vast network of Provincials, courtiers, servants, magnates, and even bourgeois citizens working with and for him. That being said, what came with his network of friends came a vast network of enemies. Unfortunately for the Marquis, he'd slowly begun to run out of moves by the time of his return to court. The Provincial Incidents The death of his close friend the Comte d'Anet marked an ever-stronger force that came against him. Louis had an ally in that man, and without him, the Marquis was ever closer to a demise. However, Louis was an oddly calculated individual in his later years. His subservience to everything that moved had washed away into a cunning and cut-throat mind wisened by past failures. Louis knew what he must do in order to ensure future peace. The only way to ensure such peace was to obliterate the world he dove into in his absence with honesty to the Emperor and the public. He knew this honesty would only be effective to his enemies if it could be lorded over his enemies. He'd known since shortly following his first wedding, to a Saint-Simon, the Provincials were restless and their actions were at some point to boil over. The Le Tellier family had staved them off however, hoping for the provincials to either slowly run out of money or lose interest in their fruitless endeavors. Louis had quite a bit of power among many provincials, and some of them were actually almost presentable to Court as they'd wished. While some of these provincials had been actually courteous and gained honest intentions, other houses had gone to cut-throat methods to embezzle revenues from one another and even some houses that were involved in the Court. In Louis' short tenure as Grand Maitre de la Maison and his 20-year absence, he'd become a go-between for many provincial families. However, he'd been keeping tabs on the countless families and even several of the court families that had gone to various financial issues as times came and went. He was able to create such a vast network between 1727 and 1740 that very few nobles and even notable citizens were able to move from place to place without him catching wind of it. From 1729, Louis began work against various noble families who were beginning to threaten the court and its various courtiers and friends of the Le Tellier family. Between 1729 and 1757, Louis was privy to the knowledge of no less than 89 plots and varying ventures. This secretive operation was very dangerous, of course, so to ensure his safety he kept all sorts of records as leverage. He thwarted the overwhelming majority of these threats before anyone could truly pay much mind to them. As Grand Maitre, he only on occasion allowed Her Majesty to know some of the plots for fear it'd worry her. Louis led a double life for some time. With the Empress dying in 1757, the Marquis was given her desk and personal correspondence. With this, he found countless more plots to either allow or block depending on Her Majesty's private notations on the letters and whether these plots were to benefit the court and nation. Louis did his absolute best to be discreet and before his death he was able to stop several plots that were going to consume the court into a pit of despair. That being said however, Louis knew his time was up. Assassination and Aftermath Knowing his demise was going to reach him soon, the Marquis de Louvois had arranged a meeting with the Comte de Dammartin. He hastily wrote his will, ironically the only thing he had put off. Louis had always a strange sense of determination that he would never die.The sudden realization that he was going to indeed be no more after all his work ensuring that he would not die so young led him to be oddly determined in his final acts. His will was insurance that his family would suffer as little as possible. He wrote a letter to the court, a confession of many of his deeds and a revelation of the issues and little plots that he saved the court from. He was certain to make the court aware of his services, being oddly arrogant in death. The day finally came in Mid-January, 1758. The Marquis had left court very silently. He was in a visit toParis to have the previously mentioned meeting with the Comte de Dammatin. Louis had several previous meetings with other nobles that day, and was on his way to this one near his appartment. After getting a few parcels sent out, including his will and letter to the Court, along with a letter to the Duc de Mortemart, and a letter to his son, explaining the gentleman's new role. Louis was hobbling down the street in his city clothing, a somewhat simple finery of a suit, when he saw his assassin. The man, hired by the House de Poitiers to kill the Marquis, was actually somewhat courteous. Louis knew very well who he was. The two spoke for a minute or two, discussing the events that were about to occur. It was unbeknownst to the both of them that the Marquis would be visited by his friend from court, the Baron de Tonnelier. The Marquis began his approach to the Baron, his intention unknown, and the assassin finally took the opportunity. Louis was initially stabbed only twice, but the force of the second made him nearly keel over dead on its own. The Marquis was able to gather his footing, but not for long. The Baron and the Marquis, believing that reaching the Notre Dame would possibly be able to save him, began a painful walk to the cathedral. The two weren't too far off, after all. The Two reached the steps of the grand Cathedral, but were unable to enter. The Baron de Tonnelier was witness to the Marquis' last recorded words: "And so begins the storm of houses..." The Baron de Tonnelier left the Marquis on his order, to go find help, while the Marquis continued to ask for sanctuary. This was unfortunately not the end of the ordeal. The Baron looked back to see if Louis had reached the inside of the Cathedral, only to witness the final blows. another 14 stabs to the chest and torso. He bled to death on the steps of Notre Dame. In his left hand was his medal for the Order of Saint Benignus, it fell beside him as the sun set. The Marquis was no more. Hours after his death was announced, Louis' final plans were put into action. His son was given express orders to not target House Poitiers until the moment was opportune. The Marquis' body was taken by his personal secretaries, who had known the assassin's plan all along, to an undisclosed room at his lodging in Paris. There his body was prepared for the standard of Le Tellier burials. His bones were placed into an ossuary and transported to the Crypt at Le Tellier-et-Iscour. His son was given his personal effects, and was requested to immediately begin work in various provincial affairs. Louis' death was scarcely announced to the court, until his letter was made public. Issue Louis-Michel Le Tellier married twice, firstly to Marie Josephine de Saint-Simon and later to Emilie Christine de Blois de Penthievre (who was his first cousin once removed). With Marie Josephine de Saint-Simon, Louis had 6 children: * Charles Michel (born 17 June, 1729) * Marie Thérèse (18 February 1731- 10 October, 1733) * Marie-Elisabeth (18 February, 1731- 6 October, 1733) * Marie-Anne (born 3 May 1732) * Philippe Dieudonne (born 14 December 1734-1 September, 1755) * Louis-Matthieu (born 17 April, 1737) With his second wife, Emilie-Christine de Blois de Penthievre, Louis had 3 children: * Louise-Seraphine (born 8 May, 1738) * Victoire Therese (born 8 May, 1738) * Jean-Michel Gaston (born 28 April, 1739) * Louis-Yvon (7 October, 1741- 2 June, 1764) Publications Being inspired by his father's friend, the Cardinal de Mortemart, Louis spent a good bit of his time writing and contemplating. In his retirement, he spent much of his time working on publications that were, to him, very relevant. * Sobriety in Thought- ''A book of prose in reflection of his own life, fictionalized in poetry. (Published in 1734) * ''Architecture and the Virtue of Graceful Buildings- An analysis on how one designs buildings of merit in varying styles. (Published in 1735) * Narratives and Works of A Le Tellier- Previously unpublished works and stories of his father the previous Marquis at court and in daily life. This was not published until Louis retired from court. (Published in 1737) * The Keeper of Books- A narrative of his time working with the finances of many nobles. To prevent back-lash from much of his friends and enemies at court, he changed names and spending numbers. (Published in 1743) * Life, Death, and the Change of all Meaning- A philosophical book of prose involving his own internal struggle between the concept of dying and his own life. (Published in 1754) Known Sayings The Marquis was known for his quick wit. He rarely used this to his benefit, however when the opportunity was strongest or if he'd held his tongue for long enough and it was time for him to say something to prove a point. Louis was known to have put much of court to shame, even in his absence, with his diligent timing and quick wit to those whom would mock him. * On one occasion, several court ladies were trying to hang around the heir at the time. He was said to remark: "Enjoy the light now, little harlots, for one day your beauty will fade with haste and your idiocy will be all that remains." * To the Duc d'Orleans, who was frequently filled with the holier-than-thou personality. he was once heard to say: "Must I remind you of your debts once more, Monsieur? Must I remind you that only Her Majesty is keeping your position out of every place of ill repute between Paris, Rome, and Hell itself?" * He once told the Comte de Revillac as a warning of the Provincial threats: "Watch, little Mayfly, you shall see soon enough what these Provincials will do to us all. I fear they will bring you and me the nails to our caskets." * He once spoke to a courtier, who was constantly drinking: "Another cask, young one? Soon enough you shall be more full of preservatives than my wig."Category:18th Century Births Category:House Le Tellier Category:Grandelumierian Nobility Category:Grandelumierian Marquis